Kudos Cardea Super 20 A Loudspeakers

Please click here to read the passive version of the review
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This is a review of the Kudos Cardea Super 20A floorstanding loudspeaker with an external active crossover driven by Exposure electronics

£5,699.00

£4,749.17 Exc. VAT |

Please note: collect from our showroom only. Alternatively, book a demonstration to hear them in your own home.

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Kudos Cardea Super 20 A Loudspeakers

“The sense of occasion was electric, like being hard-wired into the original performance with so much texture and detail, fiery virtuosity, and drama,” says Hi-Fi Plus magazine. “Beautifully clear, open and lively… revealing every last layer of fine micro detail.” “Deliciously authentic,” adds Hi-Fi News. “It’s a loudspeaker that is indeed a little bit special.”

We’ll always have a soft spot for the Super 20A here at Kudos. The Kudos brand was launched with the Cardea series, and the Super 20A is the topmost development of the series. Think of the last time you met somebody who was so fascinating, so entertaining and so utterly engaging, and who had a voice so captivating, that you could happily listen to them forever. That’s the feeling you get on meeting a Cardea Super 20A. In short, it’s a brilliant communicator and it knows how to hold a room. It’s also incredibly insightful, probing into the depths of each recorded musical performance in order to faithfully expose everything that’s in there.

cardea series

The Cardea series is a true Kudos original. The Kudos brand was launched with a Cardea, and our customers haven’t stopped asking for them since. Of course the Cardeas of today have evolved considerably since those early models. But the principle behind them remains very much the same: to create a high-performance loudspeaker for the ‘real world’ music lover. A Cardea is crafted to bring the thrill of a live musical performance into your home, without taking over your home. Its sleek design and modest footprint will blend in. The music, however, will stand out. The two ‘Super A’ models in the Cardea series are configured to allow simple by-passing of the internal crossover for active operation with leading electronics including Linn Exakt, Devialet Expert and Naim SNAXO. While a typical audio system features one power amplifier channel per loudspeaker, in an active system there is one power amplifier per drive unit. Active operation enables a variety of performance-enhancing capabilities and opens up a wider upgrade path.

EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOM-MADE CROSSOVERS

Kudos’ one-of-a-kind drivers are custom designed in collaboration with leading European experts, SEAS. All four Cardea series models feature our Crescendo K2 fabric dome tweeter, a development of SEAS’ superb (and justifiably costly) Crescendo unit re-engineered exclusively for Kudos. The mid/bass drivers are unique to each model.

The drivers are precisely matched and seamlessly aligned to work together, as one, delivering an effortless ‘just right’ sound. You’ll know it when you hear it.

LOW-ORDER CROSSOVER AND MINIMAL DESIGN FOR A PURER SOUND

The purer the signal, the truer the sound. A Kudos loudspeaker preserves a clean and clear audio signal by favouring a minimal design with our trademark, low-order crossover. The Cardea Super series’ superior quality components are tailored specifically for Kudos to stringent tolerances. They include Mundorf’s MResist Supreme resistors and air-core inductors, and ClarityCap’s unique CopperConnect technology capacitors.

ACTIVE CONFIGURATION (UPGRADEABLE)

Like the Titan series, our ‘Super’ Cardea models are configured to allow simple by-passing of the internal crossover for active operation with leading electronics including Linn Exakt, Devialet Expert and Naim SNAXO. Active operation opens up a wider upgrade path and enables a variety of performance and personalisation enhancing capabilities.

FIXED BOUNDARY BASS REFLEX LOADING

Since bass plays such a powerful role in how we hear music, our floorstanding Cardeas pay particular attention to delivering superior sound at the all-important lower end. The Super 20A’s fixed boundary bass reflex loading is key to a more agile, nuanced, textured and detailed bass reproduction.

INTERIOR DESIGN

The Cardea series’ modernist aesthetic looks elegantly simple on the outside, yet the inside is reassuringly hard-working. In a true marriage of form and function, design and materials combine to effectively manage unwanted vibrations while leaving the natural dynamics of your music blissfully undisturbed.